Greenwood woman arrested, son removed from ‘deplorable’ conditions

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GREENWOOD, Ind.-- Greenwood Police removed a 14-year-old boy from a roach-infested trailer and arrested his mother on neglect and intimidation charges.

Officers were called to the Greenwood Estates mobile home park Sunday night after the boy ran to a neighbor’s home, looking for help. The boy told police his mother, 57-year-old Dorine Flowers, had threatened him with a screwdriver and a pair of scissors. The boy told officers his mother had been threatening him since Friday night when, he says, he accidentally hit her leg during an argument.

The boy told police his mother told him she was going to abandon him the following week while he was at school.

A Greenwood Police report says the boy “said tonight Dorine told him Monday November 11th, she was going to call Child Protective Services to pick him up from school, and she was moving out of state.”

“Who would do such a thing to a young male going to school and to not know where you’re going to lay your head that night?” asked Greenwood police officer Kortney Burrello.

Police say the boy told them he and his mother were renting a room in a trailer owned by a man his mother had met on the bus. Police went to the trailer on Pincecrest Drive and found it to be infested with cockroaches.

“There was not a suitable place for (the boy) to sleep and Dorine was sleeping on a cot,” the police report states.

The pair had hung groceries in bags from the ceiling, apparently to keep the cockroaches off the food.

“They had bugs smashed against the walls of the trailer,” Burrello said. “Just very deplorable conditions.”

The report also states the room was full of clutter and difficult to navigate. Flowers was sleeping on a cot, which was donated by a local church. Her son did not have a bed, but slept in a recliner.

When police spoke to Flowers, they say she admitted to threatening her son with a screwdriver. She said her leg was still sore from when her son hit her Friday night.

She told a CPS representative that she couldn’t deal with her son anymore and wanted him gone. She also admitted to her plan to move out of state while her son was at school the following week.

Flowers was arrested and booked on charges of neglect and intimidation.

The boy told CPS he did not have any other family in the area who could take care of him. He was taken to a foster home. Burrello said if Flowers had called CPS to ask for help with her son, things could have gone differently.

“They will provide you with services to help you try to keep your child,” Burrello said. “We want to keep the children and the family together as much as possible.”